Monday, February 11, 2008

How many times have we envied fashion designers for being able to design 'their own' fabrics?

Well, thanks to parametric design, I may have broken into the realm of possibility!

In being taught to script a 3D modeling program (Rhinocerous 4.0) I learned how to script patterns of many different geometries. Doing this has been extremely cool, but it keeps getting even better when I think about it in terms of fabric! We laser cut patterns into small panels of heavy paper board and then joined the edges of each panel into a cell which created what I think of as a 3-dimensional lace. (photo below-I always try not to become completely mesmerized by the beautiful shadows this model produces!)

At some point, I plan to create a really beautiful pattern via script and experiment laser cutting metal silk organza with it. I think of this as my metal lace.The pattern below is the base of a design which I have modified for bias cut metal lace. Since silver metallic lace is so hard to find these days, it is thrilling to think of making it myself so the frock will finally come to life!